Community 2006

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The San Francisco LoveFest event is a true community effort. As an all volunteer non-profit, we depend on dance and music lovers throughout the city, state and country, to help us pull off America's biggest free electronic music party.

Below please meet the Board of Directors and key volunteers who make the event happen. Without them, and you, we couldn't bring the love. Props!

board of directors | key volunteers | production partners

San Francisco LoveFest Board of Directors

Joshua Smith

President

joshua.smith@sflovefest.org

Joshua Smith, a founding member of LoveParade San Francisco, was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. He brings to the board over a decade of large scale event organizing. Joshua has also given over a dozen years of service to the Queer community as a board member of the SF LGBT Pride Celebration Committee. When Joshua is not giving back to community he can be found out on the dance floor following his bliss!

David Cutler

Vice President

david.cutler@sflovefest.org

David is a well esteemed music/entertainment attorney with over 15 years of experience with clients in all aspect of the entertainment industry, including music, film, television, entertainment venues and event production, including Burning Man, Loveparade, The Estate of Jerry Garcia, the Dead Kennedy’s, Ruby Skye, the Bubble Lounge and Om Records. David also has a special expertise in legal issues pertaining to large event/festival production. Two years ago, David founded his side project, BeatSync, a successful music Licensing company that licenses music for use in television, film, games and multimedia entertainment. David writes numerous articles on the entertainment industry, speaks on numerous panels regarding entertainment issues and serves on numerous boards including and the San Francisco Late Night Coalition and Test Press Thursday, an industry monthly aimed at stimulating electronic music in the Bay Area. David is the Vice President of the San Francisco Lovefest and head of the Loveweek team.

John Wood

Event Manager & Government Relations

john.wood@sflovefest.org

John Wood is Event Manager and Government Relations Chair for San Francisco Lovefest. A longtime member of the San Francisco electronic dance music scene, he has produced many dance celebrations, including the Tantra events at SomArts Cultural Center and other venues, as well as stages at the SF Pride celebration, Pink Saturday, Castro Halloween and the How Weird Street Faire. John is also the Political Director of the San Francisco Late Night Coalition, an entertainment industry focused political action committee that advocates with local government for pro-nightlife public policy.

Dr. Syd Gris

Promotions & Marketing / Floats & Entertainment

sydgris@sflovefest.org

Dr. Syd Gris: Psychologist, promoter, DJ. Syd has been throwing parties since 2001 when he started throwing benefit events for different charities with Spundae, before starting his own production company under the name Opel, intended to be conscious parties with kick ass line ups. He since founded one of the premiere sound dance camps at Burning Man, the Opulent Temple, showcasing world class talent at the unique desert festival. As a DJ he crosses over like few have between club land and the San Francisco underground playing a combination of West Coast progressive and tech funk break beats. He has worked on the board since 2003, and works in his day job with foster families in Berkeley.

	Pam Ouaknine Treasurer pouaknine@yahoo.com

Key Volunteers

Alain Octavo

Co-Lead, Promotions & Marketing

alain@spundae.com

Spundae's resident DJ and Marketing Director has been an integral part of San Francisco's dance culture since 1995. His experience as an event producer and talent as a DJ has brought him all over the world in countries such as Europe, South East Asia and Australia. A jack of all trades he is often told Alain co handles marketing responsibilities for Banana Republic, oversees Spundae's San Francisco market, freelances his artistic flair to businesses throughout the west coast, manages to attend school full time and somewhere along the line he still has the time volunteer his efforts for The San Francisco LoveFest. When he sleeps is what his friends always wonder, because he's always out and about in motion around the city; always working on a project, he somehow continues to do it with a smile. "People often ask me what it is that I do and really when it comes down to it, I express and communicate everything I love about electronic music and its dance culture"

Alexandra Casazza

Volunteer Coordinator

alex@sflovefest.org

Alex has spent the last 18 years in the music industry, the first 10 years she spent in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at Sony/BMG/Warner Music doing PR, Marketing and Promotions. In 1994 Alex threw her first party that was the very first Drum and Bass party in Rio ever. Soon she branched out into other genres for her events. In 1998 Alex moved to San Francisco to pursue opportunities to promote events and work in the American music industry. Representing and booking artists on national tours for a few years now, Alex launched her own booking agency Trouble Worldwide this year, catering to world music artists. She currently represents Pistolera, Fatigo, The Cuban Cowboys, and SF's own Bat Makumba. The dance floor is her natural habitat.

	Dan Brake Co-Lead ~ Floats & Entertainment braker21@hotmail.com
A leader within the San Francisco/Bay Area Underground dance scene is proud to return working as Co-Chair for Floats & Entertainment for the SF Love Fest. From rallying for community to speaking at public hearings Dan Brake has worked extensively towards ensureing the longevity of the underground dance scene for over 10 years.

Cece Blake

Love Week support

cece@drivesf.com

The electronic music bug first bit Cece six years ago at an Orbital/Crystal Method/Lo-Fidelity Allstars concert. Upon hearing Orbital's *live* version of "Halcyon On and On," the music got under her skin. There was no looking back! Soon thereafter, she discovered the San Francisco underground scene, via such parties as "Radiance," "Gratitude," "Sweet" amongst many. Inspired by these parties, Cece (along with her friends Andrew and Christian of "On Ice Music") started to host the "Octane" parties and curated the music at the now legendary "Platform" parties. From there, she went "legit" with stints as Booking Manager at San Francisco’s Mezzanine and subsequently, at the legendary 1015. Currently, with her partner Will Spencer, Cece throws parties under the moniker "Drive", offering up the best in up-and-coming world talent in electronic dance music. Through it all Cece has been fueled by her deep love for the music, which she likes share with those around her. She's just a music geek that way.

	Mark Rahmani Webmaster / Official photographer mark@mygooz.com
Mark is a software consultant by day, photographer and webmaster by night. He is the founder and main photographer for MV Galleries, a San Francisco based photography site which encourages like-minded photographers to share their works. He manages several San Francisco based dance culture websites including Opel Productions, Opulent Temple, as well as this site, San Francisco Love Fest.

Xarene Eskandar

VIP Area Coordinator

xarene@gmail.com

Xarene Eskandar, a member of DTRA (Detroit Techno Ravers Anonymous), has varying backgrounds from architecture and graphic design to non-profit fundraising and event production. She is editor of 'vE-"jA: Art + Technology of Live Audio/Video, a book and DVD collection of the global VJ scene which has its roots in underground dance culture.

K8

Graphic Design

write2k8@gmail.com

k8 went to art school just so she could make better flyers for her friends parties.